The present invention relates to the digital image processing arts. It finds particular application in conjunction with processing text symbols in a token based compression system, and will be described with particular reference thereto. However, it is to be appreciated that the invention is applicable to image output processing of any token based or symbol dependent compression technique.
Typically image output data streams or bitmaps are optimized for particular printers or output devices. However, it is known that not all print engines respond identically even when driven by the same bitmap. The result is that a black and white image on printer A will look somewhat different than the same image produced by printer B. Technology has been developed that receives a bitmapped representation of an entire image or page, recognizes it was produced or generated for a particular printer, and converts or optimizes the bitmap for output on another printer. Typical conversions include morphological operations such as thickening or thinning lines and the like. Unfortunately, when compressed files are routed, the image is typically entirely decompressed, then processed as needed for optimization on a particular output device.
The present invention contemplates a new method and apparatus to process compressed digital image data which overcomes the above-referenced problems and other.